[ Abstract] In the process of economic globalization, intellectual property protection has become one of the most important issues in international trade. The proportion of intellectual property trade in international trade is increasing day by day, and its role is more significant. With China's accession to the WTO, it is of great practical significance to attach importance to and strengthen the protection of intellectual property rights in China and cultivate people's awareness of intellectual property rights for the healthy, stable and sustainable development of international trade in China. Starting from the relationship between intellectual property theory and international trade, this paper mainly analyzes the present situation and existing problems of intellectual property in China, and puts forward the countermeasures for intellectual property protection from the strategic height of the state and enterprises.
[ Keywords] Intellectual property protection strategy
Intellectual property mainly refers to the exclusive rights enjoyed by individuals and their organizations in terms of intellectual achievements created and completed in mental work. It has the characteristics of invisibility, duality, confirmation and exclusivity. According to the relevant laws and regulations of China's intellectual property law, the intellectual property rights enjoyed by citizens and legal persons include copyright, patent right, trademark exclusive right, discovery right, invention right, and other scientific and technological achievements rights. Intellectual property protection is very important in today's knowledge economy society. It not only encourages invention and innovation of knowledge, but also introduces advanced technology and capital, accelerates the allocation of technological innovation resources, and promotes the commercialization and industrialization of new technologies. Starting from the relationship between intellectual property theory and international trade, this paper mainly analyzes the present situation and existing problems of intellectual property in China, and puts forward the countermeasures for intellectual property protection from the strategic height of the state and enterprises.
I. the relationship between intellectual property protection and international trade
intellectual property protection is a reflection of international and international economic relations based on knowledge and an inevitable product of new economic development; According to Marx's theory of surplus value, only the production of material materials can produce surplus value, while intellectual property, as an intangible economy, does not produce surplus value itself, and only by participating in the value division of material production departments can it produce value. In the process of international trade, some developed capitalist countries have depressed the prices of products in the material sector and raised the prices of non-material economic sectors related to knowledge, thus gaining a more favorable position in international trade. With the continuous development of international trade, intellectual property plays an increasingly important role in international trade, and its importance can be seen by comparing intellectual property with trade in goods and services internationally. In 1994, during the tenth round of GATT Uruguay negotiations, the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) was formed. In 1995, the WTO was established, and the TRIPS Agreement came into effect at the same time. In 21, China joined the WTO, and the TRIPS Agreement certainly became an important criterion for intellectual property protection in China. Intellectual property protection will have an important impact on international trade.
1. Paying attention to intellectual property protection is beneficial to the healthy development of China's foreign trade
As we all know, foreign trade is the engine of economic growth. With the development of international trade, the knowledge content and technology content of goods and services are getting higher and higher, among which goods involving intellectual property rights account for a large proportion, and this proportion is still rising. Since the reform and opening up, China has been able to successfully introduce a large number of foreign capital and foreign advanced technology, largely relying on the establishment and implementation of the intellectual property system in China, which has laid a basic guarantee system for normal international trade and investment activities. Only in a good intellectual property protection environment can international trade and investment be effectively developed.
2. Adverse effects of intellectual property protection on developing countries
In Vernon's product life cycle theory, generally speaking, a country's industry will go through the following four stages: the first stage, creating new products and entering the domestic market; In the second stage, the domestic market is saturated and exported to foreign markets; The third stage, foreign investment, providing products to foreign markets; The fourth stage is foreign production and export to the home market. From the perspective of developed countries, when it is in the second and third stages of the product cycle, it will strongly support free trade; In the fourth stage, when the products in the domestic market were replaced by imported products, the market position of the country's products began to decline and its market share was challenged. At this time, it will turn to intellectual property protection, and will try its best to link it with intellectual property protection in trade policy, and implement strict intellectual property protection through compulsory measures in order to try to slow down the pace of product cycle. This is undoubtedly unfair to developing countries that are relatively backward in technology. In this way, the protection of intellectual property rights has undoubtedly widened the gap between developed and developing countries, and the gap between the rich and the poor has become more serious.
Second, the current problems of intellectual property protection in China's international trade
China is the largest developing country in the world. With the world entering the era of economic globalization and China's accession to the WTO, the China government has established and formulated relevant legal systems on intellectual property protection, and has achieved universally recognized achievements. However, our society is still in the primary stage, and the market economy system needs to be improved. In international trade, there are still some problems to be solved urgently in the protection of intellectual property rights in China.
1. The awareness of intellectual property protection is relatively weak
Enterprises have a weak awareness of intellectual property protection. Every year, Chinese enterprises have obtained tens of thousands of major scientific and technological achievements at or above the provincial level, but the number of patents applied for is less than 1%. Enterprises pay more attention to the protection of tangible assets, but ignore their protection as intangible assets, resulting in many intellectual property rights being "squatted" in China every year. Therefore, strengthening the awareness of intellectual property protection has become the knowledge of entrepreneurs, and strengthening the legal protection of intellectual property rights of enterprises has also become the "driving force" and "watershed" of enterprise development. At present, China lacks an effective intellectual property protection mechanism, which involves many aspects, including legal, political, economic, cultural and other fields. For example, the leakage of trade secrets of Shanxi mature vinegar occurred; Cloisonne, rice paper and other national stunts were leaked, and a large number of well-known trademarks in China were registered abroad. Therefore, when vigorously protecting foreign well-known trademarks, we should strengthen the support and protection of domestic well-known trademarks.
2. Lack of intellectual property talents
Most domestic enterprises have not established intellectual property management departments, and there are not many people who are specifically responsible for intellectual property work, and there are not many people who really understand and understand intellectual property knowledge. If an enterprise is involved in an intellectual property dispute, it will either be in an extremely passive position or pay a high fee to hire an external person to respond to the lawsuit. Some highly specialized jobs include patent application, trademark registration, property right negotiation and analysis, but no one is competent because of the lack of professionals.
3. Laws related to intellectual property protection need to be improved urgently
There are many differences and even many gaps between some laws in China and those related to TRIPS. Intellectual property is a legal monopoly endowed by law. Some multinational companies try to use illegal restrictions and exclusion of competition in intellectual property rights to achieve their monopoly position. Many developed countries have made anti-monopoly laws to restrict the illegal monopoly of abusing intellectual property rights, but China has not yet enacted anti-monopoly laws, and there are no operable anti-monopoly clauses in intellectual property protection laws. In this way, Chinese enterprises may encounter an unfavorable passive state when they encounter intellectual property disputes, so they are helpless about the monopolistic behavior of other enterprises in the domestic market and encounter strict anti-monopoly law control in foreign markets, which makes them fall into an embarrassing situation.
third, China's countermeasures to strengthen intellectual property protection
in the process of international trade, all countries attach great importance to the protection of intellectual property rights and have formulated effective legal protection systems to protect their economic interests. For our country, intellectual property protection is a systematic project involving a wide range. Although our government has also formulated relevant legal systems in this regard, it still takes a process to really attach importance to intellectual property issues from the national consciousness. At present, the following work should be done well:
1. Implementing the national intellectual property protection strategy
(1) Policy inclination and financial support. The policy should shift from general support to key support for patent projects, especially those high-tech patent projects, and build high-tech national industrial groups with independent intellectual property rights in China. At the same time, effective measures should be taken to ensure the fulfillment of various rewards and rewards in the patent system and reward some major inventions and patented technologies. In terms of capital, in the face of the new situation after China's entry into WTO, governments at all levels should establish patent funds, with finance and enterprises as the main bodies, broaden the sources of funds and raise funds through multiple channels and forms. Focus on supporting those patented technologies with broad market prospects, high technology content and high added value, such as torch plan, spark plan, high-tech industrialization, technological transformation projects, new product development projects and other scientific and economic planning projects.
(2) Strengthen legislation and improve laws. The formulation of intellectual property laws and regulations should aim at encouraging innovation and optimizing the environment, and further form an intellectual property laws and regulations system that is in line with international standards and China's national conditions. We will promptly revise and improve the Patent Law, Trademark Law and Copyright Law, as well as legislation on copyright protection measures for folk literary and artistic works, protection of genetic resources and traditional knowledge. At the same time, further improve the administrative law enforcement procedures and solve intellectual property disputes fairly and efficiently according to law. Actively play the role of inter-departmental law enforcement cooperation mechanism and regional cooperation law enforcement mechanism to combat and prevent group infringement and repeated infringement. Consolidate the joint supervision system for major intellectual property cases and the communication and dialogue mechanism with foreign governments and international organizations. Strengthen the protection of intellectual property rights in various exhibitions such as the Olympic Games and the World Expo. Improve the level of intellectual property protection in China's agricultural technology, agricultural tools, pesticides and fertilizers, and promote the construction of a new socialist countryside. Strengthen the judicial protection of intellectual property rights, conscientiously implement the judicial interpretation of intellectual property rights, and investigate the criminal responsibility of crimes of infringing intellectual property rights according to law.
(3) Attach importance to talents and cultivate talents. Science and technology are people-oriented, and talents are the first resource of the country. The competition between countries is actually the competition of talents. Whoever has more talents will gain an advantage and win in the competition. In recent years, multinational companies have increased their competition for local talents in China. If China enterprises do not pay more attention to talents, they will lose the power source for their future development. At the same time, enterprises should also accelerate the deepening of their own talent system and structural changes, and cultivate their own talent team. It is necessary to carry out the training of talent teams through multiple channels and at multiple levels, especially to strengthen the training of high-level talents in intellectual property work, comprehensively improve the level of intellectual property work, and create a large-scale intellectual property team including all kinds of professionals and management talents. Continue to strengthen the publicity and training of intellectual property rights for government leaders at all levels and responsible persons of enterprises and institutions.
(4) highlight characteristics and learn from experience. Developing economy has its own characteristics, and protecting intellectual property rights should also have its own characteristics. It is necessary to have the strategic focus and direction of intellectual property protection in line with national and regional characteristics. In recent years, the United States has taken combating piracy as the focus of intellectual property protection, among which media piracy is the most important. At the same time, they have improved American intellectual property laws and regulations according to modern standards, especially criminal punishment means, including revising and updating the bilateral judicial assistance and extradition treaties signed by the United States, so that pirates and counterfeiters can be punished by law in the United States.
China should also focus on seeking joint protection of traditional knowledge resources. When the developed countries have basically completed the "enclosure movement" of global modern industrial intellectual property rights, our "traditional knowledge" has become the new goal of the enclosure movement in the new century. China should actively use the existing legal mechanism of intellectual property rights to protect traditional knowledge resources, and at the same time, actively seek international joint group protection.
2. Implement the enterprise intellectual property protection strategy
(1) Establish brand and enhance awareness. In the era of knowledge economy, the "name" of a brand is increasingly based on the high knowledge content of its products. Enterprises should maintain their advantages in knowledge content to seek their competitive advantages. Only when they master excellent intellectual property rights can they launch well-known national brands in the market and occupy a place in the international market. With a well-known national brand, we should establish a sense of brand protection, understand the brand strategy used by multinational groups in China, and promote the intellectual property strategy with brand internationalization. We should not only make full use of domestic resources and markets, but also make full use of foreign resources and markets to conduct transnational operations, so that our brand can develop into a global brand. Because some enterprises in our country had no awareness of trademark protection in the early years, a large number of domestic well-known trademarks were registered abroad, such as "Tongrentang" and "Tsingtao Beer", which made the development of these enterprises in foreign countries encounter heavy resistance. Therefore, we should learn these lessons and always pay attention to the protection of our own well-known trademarks. Otherwise, it is tantamount to strangling the development of enterprises abroad.
(2) Strengthen application and promote protection. It is reported that since China's entry into the WTO, the economic compensation caused by intellectual property disputes of Chinese enterprises has accumulated more than $1 billion. Therefore, we should implement the patent protection strategy from multiple angles and in a three-dimensional way. It is an urgent task for Chinese enterprises to implement patent protection strategy as a talisman for enterprise development.
first, set up a special intellectual property organization, set up a patent information center to collect information, and build an intellectual property protection network. Through the patent information center, the patents related to the products of this enterprise are classified and managed. According to the statistics of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), more than 9% of new technological inventions are retrieved from patent documents every year, so we can constantly update our patent database, investigate similar technologies and conduct infringement analysis on related contents through professionals, so that the R&D personnel of enterprises can understand the technological development trend of the industry, provide directions for innovative projects and maintain the legitimacy in research and development without infringing.
second, improve the patent application rate and set up a patent network strategy. Apply for a patent for each innovative scheme, and set up a large number of different rights with basically the same principle around the basic patent, and technology development is a process of continuous upgrading. Therefore, when an enterprise has its own independent patent right, it should obtain a mesh patent protection scope by continuously improving the original technology.
(3) increase innovation and improve efficiency. To implement the enterprise intellectual property strategy, we must speed up the establishment of enterprise technological innovation system, increase the output of intellectual property rights, and form the main position of enterprises in technological innovation and scientific and technological investment. First, we should establish the concept of intellectual property in the process of technological innovation of enterprises, make full use of intellectual property documents, and pay attention to the discovery, declaration and formation of intellectual property; Second, we should strengthen the construction of enterprise technology centers, so that the technology centers can become carriers of new products, new technology development and the implementation of intellectual property strategies, and become a platform to attract and condense scientific and technological talents, and to mobilize and give play to their enthusiasm and creativity; Third, we should strengthen Industry-University-Research's cooperation, and, in accordance with the principle of "sharing benefits and bearing risks", we should develop new products and technologies, establish research institutes and laboratories, and train technical personnel.